another, in the characters of leaders of two gangs of robbers. We read, at 2 Samuel, Chap. 3, Ver. 1, "Now there was long war between the house of Saul and the house of David: but David waxed stronger and stronger, and the house of Saul waxed weaker and weaker." Still this must have been a general impoverishment of the whole as a people or nation. And even after the Death of Saul, Absalom carried on a civil war against his father David.

Here we see no means whatever, by which Solomon could become possessed of riches and influence enough to build so expensive a temple as that which is attributed to him. David is said to bave carried on successful wars in the latter part of his reign; but the state of the Israelites, as described in the reign of Saul, will not admit the idea, that they could, for a hundred years from that time, carry on successful wars against well armed nations. After David was firmly seated on the throne, it is said, at 2 Samuel, Chap. 21, Ver. 1, "Then there was a famine in the days of David three years, year after year; and David enquired of the Lord, and the Lord answered, It is for Saul, and for his bloody house, because he slew the Gibeonites." Seven of Saul's sons are hanged and the Lord is appeased! What a Lord! What villainy do we find in religion! A religious villain in power wants no excuse for any purpose. The Lord is always at his elbow to sanction his villainies.

We are told that Solomon made silver as common as stones in Jerusalem; but we are not told how he did it. There were no silver mines in Judea. It was a land of stones not fit for cultivation. Where then did he get the silver? We are told, that he sent ships to Tharshish and Ophir to be laden back with Gold, Ivory, and Precious Stones. But what did he send in exchange? That is the question. The stones of Judea would not purchase the gold, &c. of Ophir and Tharshish. Let our merchants send out empty ships and see if they can get them laden back with gold, ivory, and precious stones. The manufactures of Tyre were the proper produce to be exchanged for the gold, &c. of Ophir and Tharshish; but these would not go unless Solomon paid for them in specie. And that would be like sending specie to buy specie. Judea never produced any thing by its soil, or by the skill of its inhabitants that could have accumulated such riches as were requisite for the building of such a temple. And when we are told, as 1 Kings, Chap. 8, Ver. 5, that the sheep and oxen sacrificed at the dedication "could not be told nor numbered for mul

If we

titude," and at 2 Chronicles, Chap. 7, Ver. 5, that the number was twenty two thousand oxen, and an hundred and twenty thousand sheep, we may safely answer, that the soil of Judea never sustained that number at one time. allow a gallon of blood to have come from each animal, on the average, what a sea of blood must the temple have exhibited; for the mode of sacrificing was to slay the victim at the altar! Oh Religion! thou hast wallowed in the blood of thy victims, of both men and beasts!

When we consider that these Free Masons pretend to hold traditionary accounts of all that was said and done at the building of this temple and of the names of many of the workmen, even to minuteness, we can have no difficulty in saying, that there whole mystery is a vile fabrication.

Again, where do they get the account of the assassination of Hiram Abiff? The Bible states no such thing; and as the Bible is the only record in existence upon the subject, they have no way of escaping the charge of fabulous invention. If they plead tradition; from whom but the Jews could that tradition be obtained, those Jews which the old rules of their society excluded? And how is it that the Jews were never in association as free and accepted Masons? These Jews are made the foundation of every thing religious or mysterious and still treated every where with peculiar national barbarity!

In the book before quoted, entitled "Jachin and Boaz," the three assassins of Hiram Abiff are named Jubela, Jubelo and Jubelum. Stolkin is also a celebrated name among Masons, as the name of him who first found the dead body of Hiram. Macbenach, the master's word, is, in some books, stated to be the name of the Fellow Craft who dug up the body. Joabert, the name of him who found the assassins in a cave near Joppa. Indeed, by far the more ridiculous and scandalous part of Masonry remains to be exposed. As yet, I have only shewn it in its improved state, shorn of many fooleries.

I find, Brother Williams, that I have a great deal to do before I make Royal Arch Masons of all my readers. It will be masonic to qualify them as I go. Therefore I must address a letter or two more to you, detailing the further particulars of the three first degrees and describing some of those intermediate degrees, which, though not countenanced by the united lodge of England, have been very common among Masons, evidently for the purpose of filching the masonic dupes,. There are the degrees of Mark Man,

and Mark Master; Past Master, Secret Master, and Perfect Master, English Master, Scotch Master, Irish Master, Master in Israel, Architect, and Grand Architect; Nine elected knights and second elect of nine; Excellent Masons and Super excellent Masons. In each of these degrees I am initiated and intend to initiate my readers, to show them all the follies of masonry. I make Masons of them at a very cheap rate; but I fear that my charges will tire - them; particularly, when I tell them, that, after the Royal Arch Degree, there are a host of knights to come, armed cap-a-pee in defence of Christianity, (of the Rosicrusian Orders,) I will break every lance for them and dismantle every fool of them, laying prostrate at once, the trinity in unity of christianity, Masonry and Rosicrusianism;

So no more at present from your loving brother and the brother and friend of every honest man and woman.

RICHARD CARLILE.

TO WILLIAM WILLIAMS, ESQ. M. P. PROVINCIAL GRAND MASTER OF THE ASSOCIATION OF FREE MASONS FOR THE COUNTY OF DORSET,

SIR,

Dorchester Gaol, August 14, A. T. 1825, A. L. (to Masons) 1. WHEN I wrote my last, or No. 5, I had some doubts of the propriety of printing a description of those multitudinous degrees of Masonry, which grew up in the last century and the beginning of this, and which the United Grand Lodge, by its articles of 1813, discarded; but on further reflections, I perceive, that I cannot make my exposure of Masonry complete without them. Therefore, I shall suspend my remarks for a week or two, to work up these degrees. I have them not so minute as I had the three first and real degrees; but minute enough for exposure: so I shall proceed until I have published all that I have, which are about a dozen: and then, after due comment, take the Royal Arch, Knight Templars, and other, Rosicrucian, Degrees.

I now proceed with,

A DESCRIPTION OF THE MASONIC DEGREE OF MARK MAN.

THE Ceremony of opening the lodge, as far as it goes, is precisely the same as in the Fellow Crafts degree, and would be superfluously copied here, excepting, that it is called a lodge of MARK ΜΕΝ. The Catechism will be all that is necessary to explain the distinctions of the degree. The masons call it a LECTURE: but a lecture, in fact, is a discourse read, and not a catechism.

CATECHISM.

W. M. Brother Senior Warden, in what manner do we prepare our candidates in this degree?

SW. As a Fellow Craft, with the additional characteristic of this degree on his apron.

W. M. What is that characteristic ?

S. W. The ten mathematical characters, to correspond with the nine figures and the cypher in arithmetic; the signature of Hiram Abiff; and the mark of this degree.

W. M. Why is he thus prepared ?

S. W. To denote the official duties of this class of masons at the building of King Solomon's Temple, and the discovery made by the brethren. when they were repairing the Temple.

W. M. Being thus prepared, in what manner did you enter?

S. W. By three reports (knocks), varying in the sound from those of a Fellow Craft.

W. M. Having gained your admission, how were you dealt with?

S. W. I was conducted round to repair the temple, in a manner peculiar to this degree, and having made a valuable discovery, I afterwards received the solemn obligation to keep sacred the secrets of this order. After I had taken the obligation and sealed it in the usual manner, I was raised in the ancient form of a

master mason.

W. M. Having thus bound yourself to keep sacred the secrets of this order, what were the mysteries with which you were then entrusted?

S. W. The sign, token and word of a Mark Man.

W. M. What does the sign denote?

S. W. The penalty of the obligation.

W. M. Why was it introduced into this order of masonry?

S. W. To commemorate the signal used by our ancient brethren of this degree, when the first temple was erected in the city of Jerusalem.

W. M. What was that signal?

S. W. The trumpet.

W. M. Why was it used?

S. W. To denote the approach of danger.

W. M. What does the grip or token denote?

S. W. One of the penal laws of ancient Tyre united with the famous link of a Mark Man.

W. M. What does the word denote?

S. W. Every thing past, present, or to come.

W. M. Why was this grand, majestic word introduced?

S, W. To hold in commemoration a very remarkable circumstance that occurred on the morning that the foundation stone of the temple was laid. Whilst King Solomon was in the act of congratulating our Grand Superintendant, Hiram Abiff, on the occasion of his having discovered the celebrated problem in masonry and geometry, one of the precious stones fell from the royal crown to the ground, which, being perceived by the senior master of the order of mark men, who, with the chief officers, were in attendance on this grand and solemn assembly, he picked it up and returned it to the King. This stone was of the carbuncle kind and represented the tribe of Judah and our Saviour. It was formed into that great and glorious name, which King Solomon permitted to be used in the test word of this degree, in commemoration of its having been found by one of the cheif brethren of this order.

W. M. What was the original number of mark men, at the building of King Solomon's Temple?

S. W. Two thousand.

W. M. Who were they?

S. W. The Senior and Junior Wardens of the Fellow Craft's Lodges.

W. M. How many lodges of mark men were there in the city of Jerusalem ?

S. W. Twenty.

W, M. Why limited to twenty?

S. W. In allusion to the height, length and breadth of the sanctum sanctorum or holy of holies.

W. M. How many masons in each lodge?

S. W. One hundred.

W. M. What was the employ of these mark men?

S W. To mark the materials, as they came out of the hands of the workmen, to enable them to put them together with greater facility and precision, when brought from the Quarries of Tyre, the Forests of Lebanon, and the Clay Ground of the Jordan, between the Succoth and Zarthan, to the holy city of Jerusalem.

W. M. What where the peculiar marks on that occasion? S. W. Certain mathematical figures, consisting of squares, levels and perpendiculars, that King Solomon commanded to be used on that occasion, which have ever since been denominated the Freemasons Secret Alphabet or Mystic Characters.

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